ASIC steps up focus on super

Concentrating on trustees for hire

By Christine St Anne
Thu 18 Mar 2010

ASIC will boost its surveillance of the super industry and aims to see all trustees within the next two years.

ASIC will intensify its surveillance of the superannuation industry with a new risk-based surveillance program that will mean increased visits from the regulator. 

"We are in the middle of developing a risk-based surveillance program, which is similar to the models we use for advisers, investment banks and stockbrokers," ASIC senior executive leader Louise Du Pre-Alba said at the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds event in Brisbane yesterday. 

"Trustee visits from APRA [Australian Prudential Regulation Authority] occurred every two years. This is going to change. ASIC will be increasing our visits to super funds. We aim to visit all super fund trustees over the next two years." 

ASIC will also step up its scrutiny over "trustees for hire," Du Pre-Alba said. 

"We have concerns that such trustees oversee multiple superannuation businesses and therefore are responsible for multiple investments, different compliance systems and products. We are concerned that these multiple responsibilities could cloud their judgement," she said. 

ASIC will also turn its spotlight on the staff turnover of compliance staff in superannuation funds. 

"We have concerns that the high staff turnover of compliance staff in some funds may be because of the issues of compliance and culture in that workforce," Du Pre-Alba said.

ASIC will also issue a consumer alert regarding fund flipping in cases where people in a corporate superannuation fund are moved to a personal superannuation fund when they change jobs. 

"Often this means an increase in fees. We will be alerting superannuation funds to this practice as well as providing consumers with new information to make them aware of this issue," Du Pre-Alba said.

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